Nearly a million Madrid residents were bracing Sunday for a partial lockdown as Spanish authorities seek to put a brake on a second wave of Covid-19, AFP reports.

The restrictions, which kick off Monday for two weeks, affect 850,000 people living mainly in densely-populated, low-income neighbourhoods in the south — or 13 per cent of the population in and around the capital.

Like many countries in Europe, Spain is battling a coronavirus surge and, once again, Madrid is the worst-hit region.

“We're concerned with the data we're seeing, because the number of cases is double that of the national average and the number of hospital admissions ... is triple the national average,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a television interview on Saturday.

But he stressed he was not contemplating a national lockdown.